Shakespeare’s ComediesA MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM INTRODUCTION

Let’s start with a quiz!

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, in the year

1564

Shakespeare wrote three types of plays. What are they?

Tragedies

Comedies

Histories

The name of Shakespeare’s famous theater was

The Globe

Shakespeare wrote much of his plays in unrhymed iambic pentameter, also known as

Blank verse

Shakespeare has his characters speak in prose to show their

Low social class / behavior

Comedies vs. Tragedies

Why are tragedies considered tragic? Comedies, on the other hand, have happy

endings. Comedies often include

◦ Greater emphasis on situations rather than characters◦ A struggle for young lovers◦ Deception (often mistaken identity)◦ Multiple plots◦ Different types of comedy, including slapstick, puns,

practical jokes, and bawdy humor◦ Pastoral setting◦ Often ends with marriage

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Written early in Shakespeare’s career

Intertwined plots: Theseus and Hippolyta’s wedding; the artisans; the lovers in the woods

Set in Athens, Greece

Fairies, sprites, and laborers

AMND continued

What is Midsummer Night? One of the nights of the year when sprites were

powerful

Flowers gathered on MN were magical

People dream of their true loves; sometimes go insane

AMND continued

Important questions: What is love?

How and why do people fall in and out of love?

Are lovers in control of themselves and their destinies?

Which is more real: reason or passion?

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream does not always do exactly what we might expect, and in this way it

keeps its audience guessing…”

-Catherine Belsey